Friday, January 23, 2009

We went out to a restaurant and had some good wine. We decided that every week after our bookbinding class, we are going to go out to eat nearby... seeing as that the class is in Montmartre , that should not be too hard :)

Beautiful and extravagant! Lots of expensive stores... a great tourist site. We just walked down the street because it was right next to the museum where we were at. While we were there though, we found a wonderful money exchange place that had good rates... something that is hard to find in Paris. The place was somewhat hidden and was completely empty, but I am glad that we stopped in.

I also finally got to go into a Monoprix. They had told us about them, but I didn't get the chance until today. It is a store that is similar to Target, but had a nicer and larger selection. And the best part about it was that EVERYTHING was on sale. This is because the wonderful sales that go through january and some of February. From what I can gather, all department stores and even high end fashion stores put everything on discount. When I was at the Monoprix things ranged from 30 to 70% off. I am still truly amazed by this.

Closer to night fall, all of the trees light up.... you can somewhat see it in this photo

The Wells students all went out to dinner together just to end our first week in Paris with a great meal. I figured that since I am in Paris, I am going to try new things as often as possible. So, last night, I had duck for the first time and it was absolutely delicious... it melted in my mouth. I also had wine with my meal... which is completely different, seeing as that I normally do not drink wine, and I normally do not drink with meals. For dessert, I also had some things that I had never had.... I ordered the berry mouse which ended up being fresh whipped cream with tart little berries on the bottom (mmm...). There was also a meringue type dessert covered in caramel, which was also quite tasty.

The most French thing that I tried last night was a snail. So, of course we took a picture of it. It was cooked in this pesto garlic sauce and it was literally still boiling when it got to the table. It was fantastic! I had to have another :)

Friday, January 16, 2009

My bed and my poster with a bunch of other random things like my movies, books, and brochures. For the first couple of nights here, I was absolutely freezing in my little bed. I was so cold that I had to sleep with gloves on and my winter jacket over me like a blanket... lucky for me, the heater has since been fixed.

My Closet

My sink... I love that I have a sink in my room: it makes things so handy.

My desk and windows

And my refrigerator... it is cold enough outside to just keep my yogurt and cheese in a bag on the window sill... which is incredibly handy

This is what happens when I go for long walks... I momentarily get lost and take random pictures. On my walk, I also found a bazaar which was fun to go into. I got some spoons because they were very cheap and for some reason, I did not already have a spoon.

There were so many people here, it was unbelievable. Most of the food looked amazing. Aside from fresh fruits and fish, there was also a large selection of different fabrics. The fabrics were very pretty and I wanted to buy a bunch and make random things... but if I kept doing things like that, I would have no way to bring it all back home :)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

For our first day of class, the teacher instructed us to get lost within the Louvre. She randomly pointed us each in a direction and we had to take note of some of the things we ran into. Some girls ran into famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa, but I ended up in a room of French sculpture that I did not recognize at all. The entire hall was filled with extremely large white marble sculptures. It was very quiet and they were people all around sketching the statues. These are a few of the things that I ran into.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Sunday, January 11, 2009

I am staying at the Fondation des Etats Unis (Cite Universitaire). Although the heat in my room doesn't really work right now, my place is still very nice. I have a room on the corner of the building so I have this beautiful 3 window view. And I am on the 1st floor.... which in France, means that I am on the 2nd floor.